Dumbarton Oaks Gardens (Washington, D.C.)

Scope and Contents: Twenty four black and white photographs and 4 color photographs of the Dumbarton Oaks Garden, Ellipse.The plans for the Ellipse were the result of close collaboration between Beatrix Farrand and Mildred Bliss. The basic outline of the design first occurred to Mildred Bliss as a child, and she consulted on the original design and all subsequent changes. The Ellipse began as a loose oval hedge of tall, rumpled boxwoods about fifteen to twenty feet high. The hedge followed the slope...

Scope and Contents: 23 black and white photographs and 3 color photographs of the Dumbarton Oaks Garden, Arbor Terrace. One black and white photograph is of a print. First designed in the early 1920s as an herb garden by Beatrix Farrand, landscape gardener, with a fountain, arbor, and balcony, it was later re-designed as a terrace by Ruth Havey, landscape architect. Ruth Havey kept the fountain, arbor, and balcony features of the Beatrix Farrand design. Over the years it has been referred to as Arbor Terrace,...

Scope and Contents: The Bowling Green was first designed by Beatrix Farrand with inspiration gained from 18th-century Colonial period estate gardens, many of which featured sunken ornamental lawns. It is located between the Copse and the Director’s House and Terrace on the Dumbarton Oaks property. The division between the Copse and the Bowling Green is signaled by a significant drop in elevation; a stone retaining wall borders the Bowling Green on the south. The wall, topped with stone piers and swags of bronze...

Scope and Contents: Seven black and white photographs of exterior and interior views of the Director's House and Terrace. Before 1941, the building that anchored the southern side of the Service Court was the Garage. The second-floor residential rooms housed some of the Blisses’ male staff.After the Robert and Mildred Bliss gifted Dumbarton Oaks to Harvard University, architect Thomas T. Waterman converted the upstairs living areas into a single residence for John Thacher and his family. The...

Scope and Contents: 34 black and white photographs of the Dumbarton Oaks, R Street facade, Washington, D.C. The brick walls, walkways, and initial wood entrance gates were designed by Beatrix Farrand, landscape gardener in the 1920s and early 1930s. In the 1950s, Ruth Havey replaced the wood gates with iron gates with gold gilding. The R Street facade has also been referred to by some of the architectural elements: Entrance gates, Gatehouse, Inner edges of East Lawn, Porter's lodge, R Street border, and R...